During the conference “Weee collection: the experience of the smart dumpster”, held last April 23rd in Milan, they presented the results attained by the European project Identis WEEE – Identification DEterminatioN Traceability Integrated System for Weee – funded in the ambit of the European programme Life+ and promoted by Hera Group, Ecolight Consortium and by the Spanish Foundation Ecolum.
Established in 2011 with the targets of increasing the Weee collection, assuring their traceability through technologically innovative instruments and favouring the recovery of important second raw materials, Identis Weee benefitted from an investment of 3.5 million Euros, establishing itself as a unique initiative in Europe for the high technology put in practice and the attention to the environment in a delicate issue like electronic wastes. They have studied and developed four prototypes of dumpsters with the aim of offering a service to citizens: the Weee-points (realized in 36 specimens) dedicated to the kerbside collection of small Weee, as well as of lamps and batteries, the Weee-shops (5 centres) for the collection of small appliances and batteries by big distribution centres, the Weee-parking (1 unit) for the collection of small and big household appliances close to distribution centres and in very popular areas and finally the mobile Weee (1 unit), itinerating station with operator for the proximity collection of all Weee types.
Thanks to the smart dumpsters developed in the project ambit, at the end of January they had totally intercepted 56 ton electronic wastes in the test areas of Emilia Romagna (Bologna, Castenaso, Ravenna, Lugo and Ferrara) and in Spain. We must add them the 7.5 ton Weee (Waste electrical and electronic equipment) collected at the end of March through the new smart dumpsters created by Identis Weee and positioned in commercial areas and zones with high attendance. They have therefore collected more than 63 ton wastes through these innovative instruments.
